Elbows at address?

badolds

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I was reading Ben Hogans five lessons yesterday and he says your elbows should point to your hips at address. My swing and setup is self taught and this feels very awkward to me. Hogan says the inside cups of your elbows should be pointing up towards the sky. It feels like my arms are installed backwards when I setup like this. My elbows are pointing out to the sides at address in my normal setup.

Although it felt awkward I hit some balls into my practice net setup like Hogan recommends. Holy shiznit!! The sound of the balls hitting the canvas of the net was louder than I have ever heard before. Every shot with my 8i and driver hit the net with real force. I have been thinking about my swing and specifically how my hands release at impact. With my old elbows out setup it seems like my hands are fighting against each other at impact. I am hoping this new setup will help my hands release correctly at impact.

Where are your elbows at setup? Why?
 
“Inside cups” is an interesting concept. I think i know what you are referring to and the idea of them pointing to the sky is a concept I’ve never heard of. I’m a low capper and just sitting here looking at how my elbow cups sit. Interestingly, my left cup does point skyward, but the right one points more left. When i move my right elbow so it points more skywark, my elbow points into my right side/body. Have to say....I like this idea. Going to the range in a bit and gonna try this out in my setup. Curious....


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Pictures of the arms at address.
 
So I hit a large bucket with my elbows pointing at my hips at address and I must say it was very encouraging. I made solid contact on nearly every shot except for some fat wedge shots. I was pretty consistent with the driver which is rare. Although it feels strange to have my arms in this position the immediate success made me stick with it for the whole bucket. I am hoping to play tomorrow afternoon and I am going to setup like this the whole round.
 
meh, IDK. I think the way everyone os put together so differntly this can be one those things that may or not work for one while not another. We are not at all at the same proportions. Our upper and lower arms are all different in relation to each other and so is the way our elbows are and how we bend our arms and fwiw our hips can be different too. And so can our hands be connected sort of differently to.

I mean just ask anyone to place thier hand on thier hip. And you will see so many versions of how anyone might naturally do that. The two most dominant differences os that one person might rest thier hand in a forward facing manor while another bacwards facing. And whil in these positions we will find one persons elbows sticking way out sodeways while anothers much closer in. Sane thing if we were ask a bunch of people to raise thier arm to scratch the back of thier head. We would see all kinds of variations of just how naturally different we all would perfoorm that same task and our arms and hands would move and be in all different postions. Subtle perhpas but none the less different. I just cant see this a something meant for most anyone because we are all made much too diferently. But alot of golf tips are that way.
 
Take a club and your normal stance. Now move your elbows closer together. Notice how this rotates both elbows in the opposite direction, so your elbows move more towards the core of your body and the elbow cups point more outward. This is the 'adjustment' I think Hogan is talking about. Most weekend golfers setup with elbows that are too far away from each other. This also tends to screw up your grip. Most weekend players grips aren't opposed to each other and this makes it difficult to impossible for the hands to hinge and unhinge properly.

Get this position right and you'll likely swing with a wider arc, fold the trail elbow properly, which promotes a better arm rotation and swing plane, and experience contact with improved swing speed and smash factor.
 
Take a club and your normal stance. Now move your elbows closer together. Notice how this rotates both elbows in the opposite direction, so your elbows move more towards the core of your body and the elbow cups point more outward. This is the 'adjustment' I think Hogan is talking about. Most weekend golfers setup with elbows that are too far away from each other. This also tends to screw up your grip. Most weekend players grips aren't opposed to each other and this makes it difficult to impossible for the hands to hinge and unhinge properly.

Get this position right and you'll likely swing with a wider arc, fold the trail elbow properly, which promotes a better arm rotation and swing plane, and experience contact with improved swing speed and smash factor.

When I take practice swings with my elbows pointed out I can feel my hands binding up or fighting against each other where impact would be. I don't notice when I am hitting a ball but it has been puzzling me why it feels this way. I thought I would not even be able to take a backswing it felt so awkward but after a few balls into the practice net I was blown away how hard the ball was hitting the canvas backstop. My Triton was making a high pitched CRACK!! I have never heard before at the driving range this morning.
 
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